World trade will fall by more this year than during the downturn brought on by the global financial crisis of 2008-09 as the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are felt.
The fate of the steel world continues to hang in the balance: Numerous scrapyards have stopped operations, blast furnaces around the world have stopped and aggressive offers by traders for Russian and Indian supply have pushed prices down further.
Chinese-Australian miner MMG has declared force majeure at its major copper project Las Bambas after Peru extended its national state of emergency, Fastmarkets learned.
French mining and metals group Eramet will put on hold the construction of its Argentinian lithium production plant for an indefinite period due to the economic uncertainty sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Citic Metal, the exclusive sales agent in China for ferro-niobium from Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração, has set its quarterly price for the April-June period at 205,000-225,000 yuan ($29,035-31,867) per tonne, market sources told Fastmarkets.
